The modest exhibition of ceramic figurines at the Museum of Ceramics is an example of small-scale sculpture. At the opening, Marita Benke-Gajda stressed that she creates for the viewer, and that the viewer and their choice are most important to her. She wants her angels to be admired and purchased. This is a frank and very honest declaration by an artist of considerable stature.
Let us note that there are so few non-factory-made and non-standard items in our homes. There is a lack of unique and artistic objects. Large wholesalers compete to individualize our homes, selling us the same decorations in hundreds of variations. The angels from the Museum of Ceramics are unique and beautiful. Many visitors reserved figurines for themselves. The exhibition will therefore remain in the city forever—more precisely, in the homes of the residents of Bolesławiec.
The director of the Museum of Ceramics, Anna Bober, revealed to us that in the future she and the artist plan to create a series of figurines from different eras, illustrating the most important events connected with our city.
The creator of the ceramic figurines is a lecturer at the Ojcowie Pijarzy General Secondary School in Kraków. She has worked in ceramic sculpture since 1980 and for the past two years has shared her technological expertise with students of the sculpture department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In Bolesławiec, we know Marita Benke Gajda from the International Ceramic Workshops, in which she most recently participated in 2004. Her works can be found in the collections of the National Museums in Kraków, Gdańsk and Wrocław.
The exhibition in Bolesławiec can be viewed until mid-January at the Museum of Ceramics on Kutuzowa Street.
(information: G. Ferensowicz)